Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States on three drug trafficking charges, was released this week after receiving a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, who had made the announcement shortly before Sunday’s elections in Honduras.
Juan Orlando’s wife, Ana Garcia, reported Tuesday that on December 1 the former president “became a free man again,” on a day they will “never” forget, and thanked Trump for his “presidential pardon,” a fact confirmed by updated records from U.S. prison authorities.
Juan Orlando Hernandez is released
It’s now official: Trump has pardoned one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking last year in the U.S. and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He conspired to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into… pic.twitter.com/ldhVhz37ec
– MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) December 2, 2025
Trump justified the pardon by assuring that the government of now former President Joe Biden “set a trap” for Hernandez, who in a letter addressed to the U.S. president, amid praise, recalled the bilateral collaboration between the two countries during his first term.
Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced on June 26, 2024, after being extradited to New York on April 21, 2022, three months after leaving the Presidency of Honduras after two consecutive terms.
His second reelection was widely questioned as fraudulent, as the Honduran Constitution does not allow it.
Trump announced on Friday, November 28 that he would be granting the pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez because he had been treated, “according to many people he greatly respects,” “very severely and very unfairly.”
At the same time, he reiterated his support for the conservative candidate Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, of the National Party, the same party of Juan Orlando Hernández, promising that “there will be a lot of support” for the Central American country if this politician wins.
Nasry Asfura is currently leading the vote count in Honduras, although very close with the also conservative Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party.
In the New York trial, Juan Orlando Hernández was also accused of having received money from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín ‘Chapo’ Guzmán to finance electoral fraud in exchange for participating in a conspiracy that brought more than 500 tons of cocaine into the country.
A long political life
Before becoming head of state of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, 57, was president of the Parliament, in the period 2010-2014.
In November 2013 he won the elections under the banner of the National Party amidst allegations of alleged fraud by the opposition.
For the 2017 elections, Hernández sought reelection, protected by an interpretation of Supreme Court justices that ignored the Constitution, which prohibits presidential reelection under any modality.
His reelection in an irregular manner and the allegations of fraud by the opposition, mainly by the now presidential candidate Nasralla, led to violent events.
Nasralla accused Hernández of having stolen the elections from him, which he also claimed in the 2013 elections, then at the head of the Anti-Corruption Party.
Tu donativo brinda terapias, esperanza y un futuro sin límites a niños con discapacidad. Haz la diferencia hoy.
Dona y cambia vidas
The wear and tear of the 12 years in power of the National Party, the first four under Porfirio Lobo, weighed on the 2021 general elections won by Xiomara Castro, of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre, left), whose party now denounces Trump’s “interference” with the pardon of Hernandez and the request for support for Asfura.
Hernández had not even been out of power for three weeks – which he left on January 27, 2022 – when he was captured at his residence in Tegucigalpa, in response to an extradition request from the United States, which was made in April of that year.
Handcuffed hand and foot, as when he was arrested at the gate of his house, he was flown to the United States, where he reiterated his innocence of all the charges against him.
Juan Orlando Hernández claimed during the trial that the US justice system had allied itself with drug traffickers who falsely accused him in revenge for his government’s approval of his extradition to the United States.
On June 26, 2024, he received a 45-year sentence, becoming the first former president of Honduras to be sentenced for drug trafficking in the United States, where one of his brothers, former congressman Juan Antonio ‘Tony’ Hernández, is also serving a life sentence for drug trafficking.
In addition, in December 2023, a judge in Tegucigalpa issued a warrant for the arrest of Juan Orlando Hernández for failing to appear in court in a case of alleged corruption, known as ‘Pandora’, which also implicated former President Porfirio Lobo, among other officials, for the crimes of fraud and violation of the duties of public officials.
His wife, Ana García, tried unsuccessfully to be the National Party’s presidential candidate for last Sunday’s elections in Honduras.
With information from EFE
